Iain BAXTER&Along the Great Lakes (From the series Television Works), 1999Acrylic on reclaimed (RCA) television33.0 x 45.0 x 39.0 cmPurchased with funds provided by the Canada Council for the Arts 2007 York Wilson Endowment Award and with assistance from The Art & Pearl van der Linden Foundation2007.164

Iain BAXTER& is a conceptual artist known for his pioneering work in photo-based imagery and new media, such as his light box transparencies produced in 1969. Using everyday objects, his work combines playfulness with concerns for ecological, social and conceptual issues. His work has been exhibited and collected by numerous museums including the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Vancouver Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Ontario and the National Gallery of Canada. He has received the Order of Canada, a Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts and the Molson Prize among many others. He works and teaches at the University of Windsor.

Television Works is a series of obsolete television sets with landscape scenes painted directly on their screens, resulting in a dichotomy of moving static behind a static image. It is a technique that results in dynamic works that are a clash between painting and video. BAXTER& created these works from 1996 to 2007. The work comments on the clash between culture, nature and the environment. It makes a strong statement about our society’s obsession with newness and the potential damage this poses to the environment. Works from this series have been exhibited at the Toronto International Art Fair, Walter Phillips Gallery (Banff, Alberta), University of Windsor, and Corkin Gallery (Toronto).

This work was purchased with funds provided by the York Wilson Endowment Award. Since its creation in 1997, the York Wilson Endowment Award has been given annually to an eligible Canadian art museum or public gallery to assist with the purchase of an original artwork by a Canadian artist that will significantly enhance its collection. The award, which is the result of gifts of more than $600,000 from Lela Wilson and the late Maxwell Henderson, honours the contribution of Canadian painter York Wilson by assisting Canadian institutions to acquire works by living Canadian painters and sculptors. Baxter&’s television series knits together painting, sculpture and new media, offering respect to the expressionist painterly legacy of York Wilson.